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Hey all! I want to start this out with saying above anything else, this jam was nothing but a positive experience! I was able to meet and converse with multiple dev's for the first time on this scale, I had an absolute blast making my game and challenging myself, I learned a lot and I got to watch people have a good time with something I put my blood and sweat into! How awesome is that?! I couldn't have asked for a better weekend!

The only reason I'm even making this topic is because I feel like as the way things are currently, the voting system can really turn people away (especially first time jammers) from the game jam scene. One of the most fun aspects of this jam for me was the interaction with the community! It's something I think most of us crave and enjoy. When I was able to talk to people, get feedback and discuss my game and others, I was having a blast! The problem is I feel like the way the voting system works, it's like the more you interact with people and get ratings and feedback, the more you are punished.

I'm perfectly fine with how I did in this competition! I came into it with the goal of challenging myself, learning, and having fun above anything else! I did all of that, and I'm one happy camper! Plus I'm pretty proud of how my overall score came out! Never thought I would end up in the top 300!! Now that being said, if I were in it just for the competition and all I cared about was placing high and disregarding the core idea behind these types of events, I wouldn't interact at all. I would be too afraid too. I would stick to a few personal friends and hope that whoever else stumbled onto my game would rate nicely and by the end of it, I'd have around 15 solid ratings.

I've personally talked to a few first time jammers who are frankly really bummed out and discouraged because they have such great feedback from all of you cool people out there and very solid scores to back it up, but felt like they messed up by trying to get feedback and ratings and this breaks my heart because these type of events are suppose to promote dev's to create and share, not make them afraid of people playing and rating their games.

At the end of the day, this all really shouldn't matter. Over 2000 people came together in a community and each and every one of you made something special. I'm glad I could be a part of it :) I just wanted to share my perspective as a first time jammer myself!

I'll see you all next year!

I have a lot to praise with this game. The art is simple, clean and cute! Love the characters! You introduce mechanics in a way that teaches the player how they work dynamically. You have a multitude of levels, all which are not rushed and are well thought out! Just overall great job on this! Really had fun playing!

Would love if you could check mine out too! Or not, no pressure ;) https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462672?after=20#post-876644

Way to use RPG Maker to its fullest! You don't see a lot of RPG Maker games in a jam but I think yours has some polish to really help it stand out. Neat concept and clear vision. Great job!

Would love if you could check mine out too! Or not, no pressure ;) https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462672?after=20#post-876644

Art and physics overall were very polished! The aesthetic was nice and screenshake added that sense of panic and chaos. Really interesting use of the one platform mechanic. Most people tried to  develop levels based around it, but you went the survival route and I think it really worked! Nice submission!

Would love if you could check mine out too! Or not, no pressure ;) https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462672?after=20#post-876644

This game is definately difficult, but rewarding! Interesting concept! As everyone else said, level 3 is a bit tricky without knowing what to look for. Overall though this was a fun experience. Theme was met and met well! Great job!

Kudos to all you jammer who made a variation of chess! I LOVE YOUR ARTWORK! Its so clean and polished! Each piece has a ton of charm. Gameplay is fun and smooth. Challenging levels never felt ridiculous. Really great stuff overall!

Would love if you could check mine out too! Or not, no pressure ;) https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462672?after=20#post-876644

There have been a few games this jam with similar ideas, but I truly think you pulled the concept off the best. Its very polished all over. Colors are vibrant, soundtrack is great, voice over was a fun addition. Really liked this entry! Kudos!

Would love if you could check mine out too! Or not, no pressure ;) https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462672?after=20#post-876644

I'll throw my submission into the hat one more time! Hope you like it! I'll check yours out too!

https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462672

Slime Castle is a platformer that only allows you to have ONE ability activated at a time, and you can use said ability onle ONCE per room. Makes for some fun challenges!

Thank you so much for the nice words! Visual and sound queues have been brought to my attention and I couldn't agree more. I fully plan on implementing a squish or charge animation with maybe a little audio queue in there too somewhere. It would absolutely give the player more control especially when coming out of frozen time.

Thanks for the play and glad you enjoyed!

Aww shucks, you are too kind! Thanks for the follow! I'll follow you right back! I'll also be updating this game and hosting it here so I'f you ever want to try out the updates you'll see 'em :D

Oh wow you weren't kidding when you said we had similar ideas! I do like the senses being mechanics though! Thats a really cool concept! Level design was challenging but fun! Graphics were cute. Love the main character and slimes (you fellow slime dev you ;D). Had fun playing this! Great submission!

I'm so glad you had that much fun with it! That means a lot! Controls are absolutely one of its larger downfalls and it's something I'm actively tweaking. I've said it before, but I think this game really needs controller support to shine. I'm experimenting with a few different button combos and layouts to see which one fits better! That may be a really good one for keyboard support! Thank you for the suggestion! I may hit you up at some point for testing that very setup if you are serious ;)

Thank you for the feedback! The curve is absolutely too much! It was a result in rushing the level design among a few other things, so it's not just you!

I've been debating on either removing the ability menu or streamlining it. Whichever, it needs tweaked for sure. Thanks for the input!

Thank you so much!! Yeah it's a bit of a longer game for sure. This is my first jam and I wanted to add more levels because I thought it was short, but hearing that and playing others makes me feel a lot better! The coin did break the theme a bit I agree, but I wanted to add new elements of challenge and that was before I came up with the button/door idea and the lava (which you didn't get to haha ;D), so I didn't want to just scrap the levels with them in it. Time crunch is a cruel mistress! Thank you so much for the play and comment!

Thanks for the comment! Please do! I need all the gripes I can get so I can polish it up into something more fun! From the get go I thought this game would be more suited for controllers, however I just didn't have time to get both going and I wanted to make it as accessible as possible. I like the idea of the fade for sure! I think the farther back on the menu, the more faded and darkened they should get! Thanks for that idea!

I had NO idea about the button sound issue! I'm sorry if you were wearing headphones XD

I actually cant remember off the top of my head if  I lowered the sound on that specific effect, might not have, but I'm not sold on its whole sound effect anyways. May look into changing or tweaking it.

Thank you so much for the kind words! It really means a lot! I have been told by a few people that it has a Celeste vibe so I'm not going to complain about that one bit! That's an honor!

Thanks for the kind words! The game suffers from not having a proper tutorial/training the player phase for sure. I'm going to definitly have to check yours out if we had similar ideas then! Looking at the art I already like it! I actually do intend to expand the game some more so I appreciate the encouragement!

Oh wow a visual queue would work perfectly for that! I see what you mean! Maybe squish down a bit like they are ready to spring and get a little darker or something! Maybe even put a little charging up a jump sound effect for good measure.

My idea actually started out as being multiple characters as well! I forget the exact moment it evolved into abilities, but I was always using these colors in the placeholder sprites and I thought "Huh, maybe the character just changes colors with the ability instead" Then I came up with the slime idea because usually they are pretty colorful fellas haha. Don't sell yourself short because your characters had a lot of charm! I really liked your approach!

Thanks for detailing what you meant! I'm inspired so I'll probably work on that enemy mechanic tonight!

Thanks for the comment and you are 100% on the money! I agree with it all.

I had to really rush the tutorial/easing the player into the game. That is why There was that really long letter from grandpappy in the beginning. The only indicator of the hold "Z" I had was in the first level with it but it wasn't as visible as I would have liked.

The feeling "like the game used a different ability" issue was a result of a sorta last minute change. It's just some poor menu design sadly. Not a glitch, but by using "Z" as both change ability and activate ability the player can easily press it before closing the menu when they were actually trying to press it after to activate the selected ability. I should have just mapped the menu out differently. Its one of my bigger regrets.

Agree on the coin front too. Having it default to your last ability would have made it a much smoother experience. Wish I had thought of that before :P

Thanks again for the suggestions! I appreciate these quite a lot because I want to tweak this into something really fun. This helps with that a tremendously! Looking forward to the video! Shoot me a link if you can!  Would love to watch!

Thank you so much for the well thought out comment! I Take NO offense what so ever as I agree 100%! Rushing the level design a bit resulted in some of the frustrating challenges, but a few tweaks that I have already implemented in a new version makes the game feel SOOO much better.  (I'mma talk about some not as excuses, just because I want to share my own gripes with my game haha!)

First of all, I found that by clamping the max vertical downward speed really helps make those falling sections more reasonable. It was something I wanted to do in the first place, but never got around to doing so (mainly because I forgot whoops!) It makes the player feel like they have more control when pausing instead of pausing and feeling like the game moves them down way farther than it should.

I also agree that the levels have too many challenges and dying hurts when you were so close to the end and have to go through the gauntlet all over again. I have been toying around with checkpoints and the game already feels so much less traumatizing.

On the point of the slime jump timing could you elaborate? Their jumps are not random but are fixed on a singular timer. If they feel weird or out of sync I would love to know so I can tweak their design! It's something I wanted to tweak more anyways, I just didn't have time.

I seriously appreciate the good rating and I also seriously appreciate you bringing up the negatives! It helps me become a better dev and improve this game! I would love to expand on it and make it something that is tight, smooth and fun! This helps tremendously! Again, thank you!

You could really take this idea and make a killer full game out of it! The puzzles present were satisfying and the graphics were lovely! Great job!

Would love if you could check mine out too! Or not, no pressure ;) https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462672?after=20#post-876644

That level transition <3 Really nice aesthetics overall even if they are simple! Very polished!

Would love if you could check mine out too! Or not, no pressure ;) https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462672?after=20#post-876644

This was ridiculously addicting! I got some old flash game vibes but 1000x more polished! Art style was cute, Awesome puzzles and smooth gameplay! Great job!!

Would love if you could check mine out too! Or not, no pressure ;) https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462672?after=20#post-876644

You have to share this more! This was such a solid game! I got some serious nostalgia for this one. Art style was really nice and the core gameplay was smooth and solid! Great submission! More people need to see this. I'll see if I can help spread it around!

Would love if you could check mine out too! Or not, no pressure ;) https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462672?after=20#post-876644

I LOVE your art! Super cute, clear and effective! I get BaBa is you vibes from this! This wasn't one of those one and done games for me! The replay was there and progression felt good! You could really polish this out and make a killer full game! I'd love to play it for sure!

Would love if you could check mine out too! Or not, no pressure ;) https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462672?after=20#post-876644

I truly think this game has pulled off the "One Light" approach the best ive seen so far! The lighting actually affects gameplay instead of being a challenge due to lack of vision (Which as a bonus, still does)! Really fun gameplay and a great concept! Nice job!

Would love if you could check mine out too! Or not, no pressure ;) https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462672?after=20#post-876644

Dang, you were able to create such a creepy atmosphere with only 2 colors and one dimension. Kudos to you! It gets really hectic and fun the farther you get into it! Lighting idea was really cool! Great job!

Would love if you could check mine out too! Or not, no pressure ;) https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462672?after=20#post-876644

Dang the atmosphere is thick and rich! Love the color choices and the low poly design! Really would love to see a full game with this aesthetic! Great job!!

Would love if you could check mine out too! Or not, no pressure ;) https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462672?after=20#post-876644

The green monochrome scheme is always one I love seeing! Cool art, nice particles and a fun game overall! Nice job!

Would love if you could check mine out too! Or not, no pressure ;) https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462672?after=20#post-876644

Definitely short, but solid gameplay and cute graphics! Cool game!

Would love if you could check mine out too! Or not, no pressure ;) https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462672?after=20#post-876644

That was such a cool concept! First of all, the art was great! UI was clean, keyboard graphics were fantastic! Character portraits were cute and charming! Everything fit very well!

Dialogue was helarious too! Great banter between both characters! Good use of comic relief! Plus the overall story as to why we are only using one button was PERFECT! Loved it

Making the ship not stop rotating made it pretty difficult but not impossible. Really, just overall great game! Nice work!

Would love if you could check mine out too! Or not, no pressure ;) https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462672?after=20#post-876644

Fellow slime main character! NICE! Game was super challenging from level 3 on but It wasn't impossible. Cute graphics and the physics feel good. I never thought I messed up for the games fault! It was my own inability! Great game!

Would love if you could check mine out too! Or not, no pressure ;) https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462672?after=20#post-876644

I won :v)! Really cool idea overall! Graphics were simple but looked lovely! Puzzles were fun and challenging but fair! The only thing that messed with me a bit was the screen transitions. Other than that I really have nothing but positive things to say! Would love to see a larger game around the same concept! Great job!

Would love if you could check mine out too! Or not, no pressure ;) https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462672?after=20#post-876644

The art is so trippy and I dig it! Gameplay was simple, but it adhered to the theme and it was smooth none the less! Had fun with it! Great job!

Would love if you could check mine out too! Or not, no pressure ;) https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462672?after=20#post-876644

I got fired... 10/10 haha! Really though, the graphics are super clean and polished. Gameplay was addicting and the core design was really well handled! Cool game!

Would love if you could check mine out too! Or not, no pressure ;) https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462672?after=20#post-876644

The zoomed out approach really makes the world feel large and searching for weapons was very fun. Wish there was a bit more substance to the enemy and a way to know If I was damaging it or not. Otherwise, a cool game with solid graphics! Kudos!

Would love if you could check mine out too! Or not, no pressure ;) https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462672?after=20#post-876644

What an original idea! You handled the limitation of one answer SO well in the implementation of the partner! Great puzzles! I had a blast playing this. Would play a fully fleshed out version of this in a heartbeat. Gave me some gameboy nostalgia! <3

Would love if you could check mine out too! Or not, no pressure ;) https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462672?after=20#post-876644

This art is so CRISP! I love it! Luckily I had my roommate available and we tried it out together. Really had a fun time with it too! Game feels smooth and polished, and the hits feel weighty! Nice job!

Would love if you could check mine out too! Or not, no pressure ;) https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462672?after=20#post-876644

We had a similar idea here! I liked the artwork a lot and the gameplay that you had seemed very polished! Cute character and color choices! Nice submission!

Would love if you could check mine out too! Or not, no pressure ;) https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462672?after=20#post-876644

Once I got the controls this became quite fun! VERY hard but I liked the concept. I kept wanting to hit the arrow keys corresponding to the icons at the bottom so I think a tutorial of sorts would help out. LOVED the graphics! They look fantastic! You should absolutely polish this up and it could be a really unique game! Good submission!

Would love if you could check mine out too! Or not, no pressure ;) https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462672?after=20#post-876644

Great artwork for sure! You added quite a few features to make your game stand out in this genre for the jam so kudos there! Liked the weapon selection! Would have loved to hear some sounds in there, but all in all its a great entry! Good job!

Would love if you could check mine out too! Or not, no pressure ;) https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2019/rate/462672?after=20#post-876644